West Ham 3 - Fulham 1

Was it a lack of imagination? Was it a lack of quality? Was it simply a matter of three horrendous errors that lead to three not exactly brilliant goals? Is Bullard necessary?

Perhaps these errors weren't really all that horrendous. Could Paintsil have simply headed that ball out for a corner rather than taking it on his chest or was he caught in a too tough a position to do anything safe? Was Konchesky in a hopeless situation to begin with, and that challenge was, although looking horribly mistimed and deserving of a straight red, the only way to avert a sure goal? Dickson Etuhu's turnover looked inexcusable but there was a long way for the Hammers to go from when they got the ball at center circle.

Etuhu, despite the apparent athleticism, overall looks much more limited than Andreasen, who replaced him when it was too late. Our midfield looked short of ideas throughout, with the starting quartet's, and Gera's passing, leaving much to be desired in terms of both accuracy and creativity. Johnson battled hard, but seldom to good effect. Zamora, and then Nevland, hardly made an impact. Schwartzer, perhaps affected by his backline's shakiness, himself looked unconvincing in controlling the area. I really have no complaints about Hughes and Hangeland.

Anyway, I don't know what to make of this match except that Andreasen needs to move ahead of Etuhu in the pecking order and Zamora, in that we don't have better options, needs to make better decisions and generally be more influential. Oh well, Konchesky's goal was a beauty.

Fulham player of the match: none - nobody stood out.

Tottenham 0 - Fulham 0 (Match Report)

This was an excellent point for us, needless to say. No Hangeland, Bullard going off in the first half due to injury, yet we still found a way.

There is no one player who especially impressed on the day. Konchesky, Baird, Etuhu, and Dempsey all could be said to have exceeded expectations.

The Hughes-Baird(!) partnership in the middle did a solid job, with Baird showing a propensity to head it out with conviction. The Murphy-Etuhu(!) partnership also had an impressive a day, with Etuhu showing some serious athleticism in shutting down space in a blink of an eye. Murphy won a lot of balls, as he has been doing lately, but then proceeded to send passes that the intended recipients did not expect. He also needlessly lost possession very late on by apparently waiting for that perfect pass: oh well.

Dempsey and Davies switched wings in the first half, with Dempsey moving to the left. I had been skeptical in the past of his playing there as I perceived him as being extremely right footed, although I suspect that Davies's crossing quality improves when he is on the right. This time around, Dempsey showed how much he improved offensively by not diminishing in influence after the switch. As I am sure will be discussed elsewhere, he almost scored the goal of the year by forcing Gomes into a solid save off a bicycle kick. Earlier, while still on the right, he had a decent volley comfortably saved by the Tottenham keeper. While in possession, he had a few decent flicks, as he does, but also lost possession or misplaced passes on several occasions, as he also does. It is on the defensive end where Dempsey did some of his best work of the day, however. He was involved, it seemed, in winning countless balls and started promising counterattacks. Davies did have some decent work on the right, his low cross that Zamora almost got to being especially memorable, but overall he still seems like a defensive lightweight that doesn't exactly force the issue as an attacker to counterbalance that deficiency. I would like Nevland (like he did in stoppage time today) or Gera (on whose injury status I am looking for an update) come in for him later on when we need an offensive spark, or Andreasen when we need a defensive one (a defensive spark? Yes!). Should Gera start when he gets healthy in place of Davies? My silly spreadsheet from earlier, albeit from a small sample, seems to suggest that Gera is awfully active in the attack when on the right.

Konchesky and Paintsil both did a job Fulham supporters could be proud of. Konchesky, with a notable assist from Dempsey, did not let Lennon run wild, even managing to stay with him on a sprint into the penalty area and proceeding to kick it off Lennon for a goal kick. Same could be said with regards to Paintsil, who had Bentley and, later, Frazier Campbell to contend with, and handled those tasks admirably. These two aren't the best fullbacks in the league, but both are solid defensively with only an occasional lapse, and contribute at least a little bit in the attack.

Upfront, Johnson was active and dangerous as always. After the many attempts of Murphy and Dempsey to send him through, there was a success as someone's (sorry) ball finally allowed Johnson to sprint past his nemesis on the day, Dawson, and while seriously off balance push it against the outstretched arm of the prone Gomes. As a history teacher of mine used to say, "almost" only counts in horseshoes unfortunately. Zamora, aside from the aforementioned cross by Davies, was substantially less influential than he was last week against Middlesbrough - when he was very influential. Perhaps this time around his matchup against the physical Ledley King was unfavorable. He didn't really have a chance to showcase his strengths of holding the ball up and distribute it with his back to goal.

Aside from one questionable moment when he seemed to have come out with no hope of getting the ball and was left stranded, Schwarzer did a solid job controlling the penalty area. He also produced a stupendous save on Lennon early on. Other than that, despite Spurs' pressure, he was never really troubled.

Overall, a deserved draw in which Fulham had some chances. While Spurs probably looked the more threatening, one would probably expect that with the roar of the crowd behind them, their budget, and the fact that our arguably two best players, Hangeland and Bullard, were not involved.

Kaiserslautern v. Hansa Rostock

Just finished watching this, but it's not over technically. Heath Pearce just received a straight red, which wasn't entirely fair. He dragged his guy down, but (1) he was not the last man back and (2) his guy was in the process of executing a nifty maneuver of having Pearce's arm locked in his armpit. He was dragging Pearce along with him for twenty yards or so. Isn't that a foul?

Anyway, it was 3:0 to Kaiserlautern at that point. In the battle of Pearce versus Robles, both were completely anonymous. In Robles's case, it was by reason of his goal being not threatened. In Pearce's case, it was because he played the role of whatever is the opposite of a rampaging left back to perfection. He didn't make any egregious errors (even on the red card), but did absolutely nothing to distinguish himself in a positive way either. He did not look to be involved in the first two goals, the second a horrendous error by Hansa, who allowed the scorer behind them on a free kick completely unchallenged (in fact, a defender inexplicably peeled off). On the third, he may have had a role in that he may not have been where he was supposed to be, but I am not sure. Also, I think it was him who failed to pull the trigger in the box, EJ style, after a nice flowing move by Hansa late on. On one occasion, he lost the ball and then got completely burned on the ensuing counterattack.

In conclusion, in this chippy 2.Bundesliga match, Pearce was not up to par, either athletically or technically. Disappointing.

UPDATE: Final score is 6:0. Pearce was dismissed in the 64th minute. The rampage then resumed without interruption.

UPDATE 2: Apparently, Robles was called for a foul in the box, but saved the subsequent penalty in the 72nd minute. I had to read Yanks Abroad to find this out.

FC Midtjylland - AGF Aarhus

In the battle of Danny Califf v. Jeremiah White, Califf came out the winner. Both played the entire match, but neither was particularly impressive. White had a couple of chances - a long distance shot caught easily by the keeper, and a very good chance just at the edge of the box which Jerry skied. He also made a couple of decent passes to set up his teammates. Califf's performance is harder to assess, but he completely whiffed on a tackle on Nando Rafael inside in the box, fouled the same player hard early, and faked a foul when otherwise Rafael would have been through on goal. I thought Aarhus was the victim of some other dubious officiating: most notably, when Rafael was clearly tripped up inside the box, but also when the same player was whistled for a foul after cleanly robbing the defender (he would have been in alone) and on a couple of incorrect offside calls. AGF had a bit more of the possession and a bit more the chances, but Midtjylland buried theirs.